Clifton College Website

Drama and Art at Clifton

The first record of serious drama at Clifton is at Commemoration in 1895 when scenes were enacted from Sheridan's The Rivals, Aristophanes' Frogs, and Molière's Le Médecin malgré lui. All those taking part wore evening dress! Not until 1920 was the school's Dramatic Society formed. Its first production on the school premises was at Commemoration in 1921, when The School for Scandal was performed in Big School. From then on there were annual productions until the Second World War - in addition to a programme of house plays, which still survives in the annual House Drama Festival. It was in The Admirable Crichton (1923) that Michael Redgrave made his stage debut as Lady Mary. The Cliftonian wrote of him:

Trevor Howard, who like Redgrave was in Dakyns', did little or no acting while at Clifton, preferring to devote long hours to cricket. But his name is commemorated in the drama prizes he went on to found. His fondest memories of Clifton relate to that great schoolmaster, Martin ("Cassy") Hardcastle. During the long school holidays Howard stayed with the Hardcastle family in the Close at Canterbury, as his own parents were in India.

After the Second World War, the school play was generally staged in the Preparatory School Hall until, in 1966, the theatre was built in Percival Road on "Clissold's plot" owned not by the school but by Wiseman's House - to whom it had been left by its former Housemaster. Sir Michael Redgrave formally opened the theatre which now bears his name.

Clifton's most famous artist is Roger Fry who was in School House when Canon Wilson was Headmaster. Fry would later educate the British public into accepting the "Post-impressionists" (especially Matisse, Van Gogh, Gaugin and Picasso) as serious artists. Lord Clark wrote of him: "In so far as taste can be changed by one man, it was changed by Roger Fry."

Yet in the 1930s art was not sufficiently part of the Clifton way of life for it to feature in O.F. Christie's History of Clifton College published in 1935, the year after Fry's death.

It was not until after the Second World War that Bill Leadbetter was appointed Director of Art, but he occupied the post for 23 years. A Scotsman who combined fiery enthusiasm as a rugger coach with a passion for precision in drawing - having himself, as a student, won prizes in Life Drawing and Anatomy - he established the importance of his department by sheer force of personality. Leadbetter's last contribution to Clifton was to design the new Art School at the top of the Tribe Building, opened in 1962 at the time of the school's centenary. There had been a woodwork shop for almost a century, but not until the late 1970s did the creative practical arts become central to a Cliftonian's curriculum. The House Art Competition regularly attracts entries from one-third of the school, and the valuable John James Award is made annually to enable the best craftsman of the year to equip his own studio or workshop.

© 2006-8 Clifton College